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Woody Allen gives Andrew Dice Clay a career boost

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Woody Allen has officially announced the cast of his yet-to-be-titled film, and at least one surprise is in store. The players include: Alec Baldwin (who is also in Allen's June 22 release "To Rome with Love"), Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Michael Emerson, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard and -- if you can believe it -- Andrew Dice Clay.

Even Dice Clay, who recently tweeted he has some "BIG news comin out later this week!" knows this could be a game changer for him.

Known more for his raunchy, headline-grabbing standup act of the '80s and '90s (he was banned for life from MTV for cussing during a live broadcast), this will be Dice Clay's first feature film since the 2001 release of crime comedy "One Night at McCool's."

Dice Clay, 54, has been in a few films over the years as well as TV shows including five episodes in last year's season of HBO's "Entourage" in which he played himself. And in case you forgot, Dice Clay was the bouncer at CATS who did all that trickery with his Zippo lighter in "Pretty in Pink" (1986). But joining the Allen cast puts him shoulder-to-shoulder with critically acclaimed, even Oscar-winning talent -- a caliber of colleagues he has yet been associated with.

(Photo: Charles Eshelman/Wireimage)No stranger to eclectic casting choices, Woody Allen is known to buck Hollywood trends -- perhaps most famously for spotlighting the eccentricities of his early muse Diane Keaton in the 1977 classic "Annie Hall." (Keaton also starred in other Allen films.) And there's also that odd casting habit he has with himself -- Allen has starred in an inordinately large number of his own films over the years.

Other actors Allen has cast who often come across as delightfully odd include Shelly Duvall, Christopher Walken, Judy Davis and Jon Lovitz.

Moreover, Dice Clay isn't the first comedian to be cast in Allen films. Louis C.K. (being the latest along with Clay), Larry David, Billy Crystal, Tracey Ullman and Robin Williams have all gotten greenlit by Allen.

The yet-to-be-named Allen film will shoot in New York and San Francisco over the summer.